Thursday, 16 June 2011

This is my latest lens which I have recently published on Squidoo. The lens discusses various options and places to visit in the South of France and, for relatively obvious reasons, focuses primarily on the Languedoc Roussillon region :-). There is nothing like a bit of self promotion.

One of the many places of interest to visit is, one recently visited by myself and some family that came to stay for a few days, the Grotte De Limousis.

You can visit the grotte by dropping in to their visitors center and signing up to the guided tour. The cost was about 8 euros a head, but for that you are taken into the caves and told all about how the caves were formed, you will see amazing stalagmite and stalactite column barriers, the underground lakes and some pretty fabulous rock formations. The tour information is given in French, but there are a few sheets of A4 provided explaining everything in English for those that are a little challenged by the French language. I put my hand up for that one.

Chandelier De Aragonite

The centre piece and highlight of the tour is a chandelier of aragonite which is subjected to a pretty cool light display that really shows off its amazing crystalline structure, all done to a background of music, mostly by Queen from what I remember.

There are a few other caves in the area if you would like to see more than one series, for example 10 minutes further on from Limousis and you will find the Gouffre geant de Cabrespine or the giant Cabrespine Cave. The first chamber in this series is as tall as the Eiffel Tower and is more than 1,600,000 m3.

Latours

We didn't visit because we preferred to go off to Latours, which is a lovely little village close by to the Grotte de Limousis, again, only about 10 to15 minutes away and plays host to a fairly impressive Cathare fortress.

That could well be the subject of another post, so I won't elaborate too much here, other than to say. If you are in the area it's well worth a look.